June 29, 2010

There's been a lot of knitting going on in my house recently. A lot of knitting and not a whole lot else. And it hasn't even been my own pattern knitting, no. I have been giving myself a little mental break and knitting up some patterns I have been dying to tackle. And it has been a lot of fun.

Sadly, many of my projects do not come out very well. Here is my Lexical sweater:

It came out big. I mean really big. I am going to going to go down a needle size AND knit it 2 sizes smaller and see if that doesn't do the trick. I liked what I saw, but the waist shaping was just hanging at my sides, so it needs a re-do. I am excited to see done right though!

Who boy, what can I say? No. It was a definite no. Also too big, but I don't think going down a size or two would help. Bulky knits are so tough, and with the cool pattern in the fabric plus the texture in the yarn it did nothing for me. So, after being knit into 2 different garments and pulled out 2 times, it is back to the drawing board with this yarn.

I have had some great knitting successes though, too!

A finished Ishbel in a yummy lemony color, just waiting to be blocked.

One of 2 thigh high silk stockings, complete with garter. I know the picture doesn't do it justice (especially since I haven't woven in my ends yet....), but man these are yummy. I think I might do a pair for me in Spud and Chloe Fine, but this pair is destined to be a sample at the yarn shop. After finishing sock #1, I decided I needed a little break before I started sock #2. So I had what I thought was a genius idea at the time and cast on for a pair of lace thigh high's yesterday. I figured I'd knit one silk, one lace, second silk, second lace. We'll see, that idea might have been what it takes to push me over the edge and into the looney bin.

I started these amazing lacey stockings since not only are they incredible, but they call for Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, of which I am a fan. Wowza, they are GORGEOUS, but holy cupcakes I have to concentrate really hard while working on them. They are my first pair of toe-up socks too, which I am still not sure how I feel about. I can't wait until they are done.

And since that wasn't enough knitting to share, I got this in the mail yesterday for a new sneaky project I am super excited about:

June 19, 2010

Who boy is it hard to sit down at the computer with all the amazingly glorious weather we have been getting up here in Birch Bay. As I am typing this the sun is rising and glowing orange beams of light are filling my office.

This week has been a whirlwind! Mr Danger has managed to spread his birthday celebrations out for over a week: dinner with friends on tuesday, day trip to Fairhaven (cute shoppy part of Bellingham) plus a fishing trip on wednesday, Iron Man 2 at the movie theatre thursday, dinner at my mom's yesterday (thanks mom, it was yummy!), his family up for a B'day/Father's Day hootenany tomorrow, and out to dinner again on tuesday. Needless to say this has meant not much work has been happening for me this week!

I have managed to get a little knitting in the last couple days though. I finished my Lexical sweater, but it came out HUGE! The waist shaping was literally hanging at my sides, not good.....so I cast on for this until I can face the Lexical again:

Which is very handy since I am OBSESSING over yellow right now. Seriously, it is getting sort of out of control. I was knitting with my group of girls on Wednesday(while Mr Danger was fishing) and they were having a great time making fun of me. I have a new yellow purse too, and a yellow t-shirt, and I bought yellow yarn to match the yellow bag, and I was already working with this yellow yarn.....you get the idea.

I am through the body of the sweater, which I knit all as one piece to avoid seams, and I am on to the sleeves now. I am really excited about it, it seems like it is coming out really cute, and it has been a great outdoor knit for the sunny weather. I'll be sure to get some pictures in of it the next couple days.

It's saturday, so I'm off to get a cup of coffee and then teach a class at the yarn shop. Luckily I managed to schedule a short one today so I can take advantage of the weather while knitting on the back deck. Smart thinking, apparently!

Now we're off to grab a birthday cup of coffee, then out to dinner with friends, them home for champagne and a couple movies Mr Danger wants to see that I have veto-ed until today(GI Joe, and Transformers 2. He's got such good taste in movies......)

June 10, 2010

Mr Quentin is my first pattern with an actual recommended yarn weight. I had been admiring all the amazing self-striping sock yarns while I have been helping out in the yarn shop and I decided I needed to do something with them. So I wrote a pattern. For sock/fingering weight yarn. There are so many cool indie dyers out there that work with this weight a lot, too. Quincy Q is a great way to feature their amazing color sense.

He's done on Us Size 1's(2.5mm) (or 0's, or 2's, whatever gets a good tight knit fabric the stuffing wont show through). And he's awesome. I love the sock yarn since most of it is superwash and extra durable: and ideal combination for a child's toy.

So there ya go. I love this guy. I had my picture taken for my author photo yesterday and he was the main monster we used. He is so pose-able and personable, I love it. He is also a great way to use up the ends of all of those balls of sock yarn you've made a pair of socks from. You always have that bit leftover, and those bits would make a really cool Quincy. I know needles this small can seem intimidating to work on, but I actually find I don't grip them as tightly and they are easier on my hands than larger sized ones.

June 08, 2010

I am sure I have mentioned it here before, but it is worth repeating. I am very much a schedule kinda gal. As much as I hate to admit it, especially on my days of, "Schedule shmedule, don't tie me down, man!" I just really do a whole lot better on a schedule. Hence why with May zooming past me like it had power boosters strapped to it, I decided to rein it in starting June 1. And I did! I got up at 5am, worked out, got stuff done, and had a fabulous day. Same with June 2, stayed on my schedule, moving me towards feeling like a happier version of myself. Which is why I think it is so blasted unfair that some little cold/flu bug decided its little schedule was more important than mine and settled in on me the night of June 2. Ugh. Though I still got a bit of knitting accomplished, I pretty much just laid on the couch and complained from Thursday through yesterday.

BUT, here I am again, back on schedule (fingers crossed that it is for more than 2 days this time). And I know I haven't mentioned it yet, since I was laying on the couch complaining instead of blogging, but I am getting the next pattern up this Thursday! Yeah! Today's my day to do my final correct-through and make sure everything is perfect. Oh, and today is the day to get my nail's done too. Ya know, the really important stuff. Just thought you'd like to know......

June 01, 2010

Wow. Apparently I blinked my eyes and June is all of a sudden here. I don't know where May went, I truly don't. Has anyone seen it?

I attempted to take last week "off." It really didn't work out quite as I hoped, but I feel a little more refreshed this week. Not much though, so I am still trying to take it easy since I am feeling tired and a bit burned out after May. I have bad seasonal allergies, which are actually a lot less severe out here by the ocean this year, but it means that all I want to do is nap from about April 15th-August 1st.

So, wondering what I did last week, on my "week off?" I played around with the new Stitch Nation yarn and did this:

It's a cool yarn for sure, especially for the price, but my hat came out looking sort of like a tea cozy. I would personally have knitted it on larger needles/gauge than called for in the pattern and I think it would have been more drapey. I think the pattern would be really cute knitted as-is with a DK weight instead of the more worsted weight it called for. I thought about pulling it out and re-writing the pattern, but I think I will gift it to someone instead.

Note: Someone, if you are reading this, you know who you are. Tea cozy hat brings up only you in my mind.

It didn't come out so great either, it was huge and probably would have fit Mr Danger better than it fit me. I don't know what happened with it, my gauge was right, but I pulled it out and figured I would either try a smaller size, or sort of re-write the pattern a bit and re-do it. But then the new Vogue Knitting came today and I kinda think the yarn might become this instead:

(The yarn was the lovely yellow color of Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Chunky, if you wanted to know) Let's see. I also finished this vest this morning, which came out as the best fitting, cutest knitwear I have ever made (me and the sweaters tend to not get along so well):